From Countrywide's former Senior VP of Marketing, the first engrossing inside look at Countrywide Home Loans, how the mortgage crisis started-and where it may end.

In July 2004, Adam Michaelson entered "The Vault"-an underground bunker at Countrywide headquarters-for a meeting about a new loan product that would allow borrowers to pay less than their minimum monthly payment. After the "finance jocks" proudly made their case, Michaelson asked one question: "Are you nuts ?" Countrywide's decision-makers believed these new exotic loans were "worth the risk." The booming housing market would only get bigger, with ever-increasing home values supporting homeowners in a never-ending cycle of borrowing against the virtual value of their homes and refinancing later. They were dead wrong.

With both an insider's knowledge and thorough reporting on the ripple effects on American families and the economy, this fascinating, witty, and wide-ranging book not only examines the morality of a career spent marketing mirages and the market forces that destroyed a company, but addresses the question that everyone is asking: can corporations serve the public good and profit at the same time? Most importantly, it offers creative thinking on how to prevent such a meltdown from ever happening again.